All I know is I liked Doc a lot more than I like Brad.
And it seems players respect him more.
Yeah, I mean, Isaiah Thomas, Evan Turner, Jae Crowder, Avery Bradley, Amir Johnson, etc.
So many players who clearly didn't respect Brad and didn't play hard for him.
They were playing to prove themselves. Every single one of them was a player who felt they were being undervalued.
Rondo clearly didn't respect him.
Brad just doesn't have that kind of cache. Stars dismiss him.
Maybe the issue is with the stars who don't respect their coaches. Crazy thought, I know.
As IP suggested, I kinda doubt that you're going to see Kyrie being super respectful and trust-the-process if you put him on a different team with a different coach. Kyrie trusts his own judgment too much. He takes his cues from LeBron in that regard.
I'm willing to believe that the Celts could bring in a different coach who is more of a personality-manager / motivator, a la Doc, and get better results in that department.
The issue is that you could easily end up with a team that has fewer locker room issues but is much worse at the x's and o's (e.g. ATO plays) and can't adapt a gameplan in a tough post-season series. Those are areas where Brad excels.
Sure, we'd love to have a coach who is great at managing superstar personalities and also has a great offensive and defensive system to implement, is wonderful at developing and integrating young players, draws up amazing ATO plays, is gifted at motivating the team during rough patches, etc.
But tell me which coach out there who isn't currently employed by an NBA team is going to be able to check off every one of those boxes and immediately be better than Brad Stevens.
You tell me that the next Greg Popovich is out there just waiting for a chance to coach an NBA team, OK fine. But seems to me that more often than not when teams get rid of an established, successful coach, the next guy isn't any better, or at least has just as many glaring flaws as the guy that preceded him.